Amazing Maurice, The [Blu-ray]

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Their quest leads them to the local rat catchers' headquarters where they find a secret passage to the basement filled with food. They also find Darktan and the other rats coming from the tunnels with the trap they found. Maurice correctly guesses that the rat catchers are trying to catch the rats alive to use them for entertainment, pitting dogs in rings with rats and betting on how fast they are killed. The rat catchers catch Sardines and use him for the ring but he is rescued by the others. The Amazing Maurice had its premiere at the Manchester Animation Festival on 13 November 2022, and was released in United Kingdom on 16 December, by Sky Cinema. It is set to be released in the United States by Viva Pictures on 3 February 2023, after being delayed from a 13 January 2023 release. [13] [14] It had its American premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. [15] Home media [ edit ] The Amazing Maurice was released on DVD and Blu-ray by Dazzler Media (under license from Universal Pictures) on 1 May 2023. [16] Reception [ edit ] Box office [ edit ] AWN Staff (13 June 2019). "Sir Terry Pratchett's 'Amazing Maurice' Being Turned into Animated Feature". Animation World Network. Archived from the original on 12 June 2019 . Retrieved 7 November 2020.

Parfitt, Orlando (5 November 2020). "Sky sets animated feature 'The Amazing Maurice' with Hugh Laurie, Emilia Clarke (exclusive)". Screen Daily. Archived from the original on 5 November 2020 . Retrieved 6 November 2020. Very loosely based around the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, it's full of knowing nods to that story. It also comes complete with a framing device in which our young heroine Malicia (voiced by Emilia Clarke) goes so far as to note that she's part of a framing device. Whether things need to be quite this meta is debatable, but the fourth wall breaking is kept reasonably sprightly and mostly in its place by Shrek writing veteran Terry Rossio. At one point Malicia declares: "In many ways, I don't think the plot of this adventure has been properly structured" - but it has arguably been structured to within an inch of its life. Maurice tells a town of people that they have a plague of rats, illustrated by various rats terrorizing the townsfolk and convinces them to pay for Keith, the pied piper, to lead them outside of the town. Outside the town, the rats are revealed to be sentient and literate, working with Keith and Maurice to defraud towns.

It's an A-list voice cast saddled with a screenplay that’s just not up to their skill set. “The Amazing Maurice” is also another computer-animated film that never gets visually ambitious enough. Oh, it threatens to do so, with village streets that promise adventure down every alley, but the world-building here is surprisingly weak given the source material and the potential of the story to get weird. It’s almost as if the producers knew they had a bizarre book to adapt but never really embraced the quirkiness of this riff on the Pied Piper. Some of the rats are delightfully bizarre, but the character design is never as adventurous as it should be. Hugh Laurie voices the title character, a charming, talking cat in a world where not all animals talk. (Why he and his rat buddies can speak is one of the plot's mysteries.) Anyway, Maurice goes to small villages and sings about their rat problem, revealing that only he and his buddy Keith ( Himesh Patel) can “pied piper” the rats out of town and save the day. For a price, of course. It’s all a scam. Keith, Maurice, and even the rats (including ones voiced by Gemma Arterton and David Tennant, among others) are just trying to make a little coin on their way across the country.

The Amazing Maurice is rated PG. Parental guidance is suggested, meaning some material may not be suitable for children. Parents are urged to give "parental guidance." The movie may contain some material parents might not like for their young children. 6.2 a b Lodge, Guy (30 January 2023). " 'The Amazing Maurice' Review: Spry British Animated Romp Shows a Cat (or Even a Rat) May Look at a King". Variety . Retrieved 9 February 2023. Production: (Animated — U.K.-Germany)a b Ramachandran, Naman (5 November 2020). "Hugh Laurie, Emilia Clarke to Voice Terry Pratchett Adaptation 'The Amazing Maurice' ". Variety. Archived from the original on 5 November 2020 . Retrieved 7 November 2020. The film tells the tale of Maurice, a large talking cat, who travels from town to town offering to solve their sudden rat problem. He unveils Keith, a young boy who can play the pipe quite well, and the rats march out of town to the relief of the townsfolk. Maurice and the money received from the grateful town suddenly disappear and he reappears a suitable distance away to count the money with Keith and the rats! But these are no ordinary rats – they talk and wear clothes and dream of an island paradise where rats and humans live together in peace. All goes well with their ‘rat scam’ until they reach the town of Bad Blintz, where they meet a book-obsessed girl, Malicia, who leads them on an adventure to solve the mystery of her town. Lodge, Guy (30 January 2023). " 'The Amazing Maurice' Review: Spry British Animated Romp Shows a Cat (or Even a Rat) May Look at a King". Variety . Retrieved 30 June 2023. Clarke, Cath (14 December 2022). "The Amazing Maurice review – rodent crime caper is a riot of silliness". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 30 June 2023. The voice cast is a star-studded affair. In addition to the central trio of Hugh Laurie, Himesh Patel, and Emilia Clarke, The Amazing Maurice features the vocals of David Tennant, David Thewlis, Gemma Arterton, and Hugh Bonneville. Laurie and Tennant are perhaps the highlights as the titular Maurice and the rat’s spiritual leader, Dangerous Beans, but everyone puts in the hard work. The production was especially difficult as it was created entirely within the pandemic, but one would never know it had been constructed remotely.